Mary Carma Stay Gunderson, our beloved Grandmother, was born in a little red house under the hill on 13th E, & 33rd S, in Salt Lake City, Utah, It was a cold winter day on December 8, 1906, but a beautiful warm day inside. To Joseph Charles and Alice Elmina Bailey Stay a little girl, after 4 boys, had been given to them to love, raise and cherish. Her Mother wrote, "Mary was a puny, light haired, brown eyed baby, costing her daddy a load of hay for the mid wife. And oh how those 4 older brothers loved to tease her later about only costing a load of hay, her mother always coming to her rescue by saying one of them only cost a dollar, another a sack of potatoes and her younger sister $10.00.

Mary was a small sickly child the first year of her life, she had measles three times and black canker twice. She said her Mother used to look at her little sickly girl and wish she were a healthy boy, wondering if she would ever raise her to woman hood, Much to her mothers dismay Her little girl liked to run away and not always short distances either. She punished her everyday she could think of to no avail, finally in desperation one night she tied Mary to the Apricot tree and left her there after dark. Mary cried so hard that her brothers finally coaxed her mother to let them untie her and she never ran away again.

She didn't like to play with dolls and never would, her most treasured toy was an iron train. She became quite a tomboy growing up with her four big Brothers. She always loved school and she worked very hard for good marks and received them. She never did like Arithmetic and spelling but all her life she loved to read books.

When Mary was 11 years old the family moved to an 80 acre farm in Draper and she had many memories of beet fields, potato patches, hay tomatoes and corn. She also remembered walking 2 1/2 miles to school and riding on bobs in winter and playing "Run sleepy Run" throughout the sagebrush. Before their farm house in Draper was finished there were 9

of them living in 2 rooms. Her parents were blessed with 12 children, 11 which grew to adulthood, 5 boys and 7 girls, Aden, Hobart, Ivan, Carroll, Mary, Lorna, Minnie, Doris, Nina, Lois, Myla, and Jesse.

Mary graduated from Draper Junior High and then started high school at Jorden High in 1922. Times were hard because of the depression and they had 7 children in school. Mary made it through the 1st year of high school with 2 dresses and $13.00. She had a hard time to keep from

feeling inferior because the cloth of her dresses was only outing flannel and granite cloth. She was also self conscious because she was 5'11" tall and thin as a rail. she spent the summer time tending kids and doing housework for $5.00 a week. She graduated from high school in 1925.

She want to go to college but her folks couldn't afford to help her so she decided to go in training to be a nurse. She worked until she had enough money saved to start nurses training. On Jan. 2, 1926 she started the 11 mon. of L.D.S. training and 8 mon. of O.B. training. Then 3 mon's of Pediatrics, and she couldn't remember how long the other parts of her training took. During her training she received $8.00's a month the last year, #10.00 a month the 2nd $12.00 a month the 3rd year. She graduated May 20, 1929.

In Aug of 1929 she went to California as most of her brothers and sister had moved there. She worked at the Mission Hospital in Huntington Park and served eight years as head O.B. nurse. During the depression she helped some of her brothers and sisters with the financing of their educations.

Mary dated two men steadily but neither was L.D.S. and for various reasons felt that she just couldn't marry either one.

In Oct. of 1936 Mary lost her beloved Aunt Rosetta Stay Gunderson (Aunt Zettie) in Menan, Idaho. Aunt Zettie had been one of Mary's favorite Aunts. On Jan. 3, 1937 her Aunt Zettie's husband, Uncle Edward Casper Gunderson ( Uncle Ed) came to California to visit his deceased wife's relatives. Mary had a date that night he arrived so she took some of her older nurse friends to the party to introduce to her nice Uncle Ed. That night after the party her Uncle Ed proposed to her and she thought he was joking as he was 17 years her senior. She then realized that he was serious and badly needed a help-mate to run the farm and home.

Mary had previously promised in a letter to her Aunt Zettie that she would be glad to help them in any way she could for they had help her sisters. She told Ed that she held high regards for him but didn't know if she could be sure she could love him. He told her not to worry, her was sure he could take care of that in time. The more she thought and prayed about it, the surer she was that this was her mission. She had been waiting for her mission call to come but for some reason the Stake President hadn't sent it into Salt Lake yet and Mary thought this must be the reason.

On the 19th of Jan. 1937 she was sealed to Edward Casper Gunderson in the Salt Lake Temple. Ed had five grown sons and one frown daughter, Gerald, Vern, Joe, Leona, Aden and Grant. On her wedding day she become wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, aunt and cousin all at once. She felt if she tried forever she would never be the wife and mother that her beloved Aunt Zettie had been and she felt a great burden to try and follow her aunt's footsteps.

As a new bride in Jan 1937 she remember her first ride into Menan, coming from southern California into a bad Idaho winter. The ride from Rigby to Menan was on a windy road with drifts as high as the top of the car. It made it feel like a tunnel and she wondered how she would ever be able to find her way out if she didn't like it.

Two months after their marriage, Mary's widowed sister Lorna, died leaving four small children, Mary and Ed took in the two older ones, Joyce and Harry Vandenberg, and Mary raised them as her own. This began a long list of 33 children and adults needing a place to live that the

Gunderson's opened their home and hearts too. Some stayed for months others for years and they were to feel like one of the family.

Mary made sure the grandchildren had memories of happy family get together. The family had an annual picnic and Easter egg hunt each Easter down in the pasture below the canal. They had Christmas Eve parties every Christmas at Grandma and Grandpa's. Mary would have gifts

for all, often time hand made. There was the true meaning of Christmas told in story form with the Nativity scene that she had made. The warmth of her love for all of us was felt in the old rock walls.

One Thanksgiving day the family was just sitting down to eat a big Turkey dinner when a knock came on the door. There were two Indians, who were very drunk, that Grandma had helped before, wanting to know if Grandma could lend them some money. Grandma, knowing they would only use it for more liquor, told them she didn't have any cash but that they were more than welcome to eat dinner with all of us. When those two Indians sat down to eat, the smaller grandchildren;'s eyes greatly popped open and they talked for years about having had thanksgiving dinner with some real Indians.

Some of the grandchildren also had the special treat of going to Hamer, Terreton and Monteview with Mary to do her County nursing. Their company helped keep her awake and it was fun to have Grandma to talk with all alone. Mary also took her four oldest granddaughters on a trip to Southern California to her sister Nina's and her Mother home for two weeks. Marie Lois, Sharon and Linda shall never forget this special time.

There were the special parties we had when it was "inoculation time for the grandchild " with the bribe of an ice cream party or watermelon bust afterward. Many times she had kept grandchild from going to the hospital by taking care of them herself at her home or visiting

them day and night for days or weeks. Many people in the community as well. We never remembered a holiday or Sunday that when we were at Grandma's of the phone ringing two or three times of someone needing her help or advice. also many people came to her for their shots, it seemed she always had a pan of needle and syringes on the stove boiling.

In 1967 Mary was selected as Idaho's Outstanding Female employee of the year and was awarded a gold plaque at a banquet in her honor in Poctaello. she Was very honored and touched by this recognition which she had earned for all her years of community service. Mary had a special talent of being able to enter any home and if needs were apparent of taking over and seeing that things were done immediately. Mary also had a quick wit and a sharp tongue for any wrong being done. Her advice on child care was sought after by all mothers in the community and Mary was never to busy to help when a child was sick in the community as we as adults.

She had many treasured experiences, one of them was saving a young mothers life in a blizzard of 1949. They couldn't get out in the blizzard to get the mother to the hospital to have her baby. She had the baby at home and it had died and the mother developed complications. She

started with a high fever and then blood poisoning developed. The father was taking care of her and sent their young son on a horse to the Monteview store to call out for help. They couldn't get a Dr. to go out in the blizzard so the sheriff called Mary and of course she would go with him. It was 3 o'clock pm when they left behind a snow plow and the drifts were so deep it took four hours to get to the Monteview store and they still had two miles to go. When they got to the home the deputy had to help slide Mary down the drifts to get into the House. Mary and the husband got the semiconscious mother taken care of and bundled up and back up the drifts to the sheriff's car. They made it to the Idaho Falls Hospital at midnight and as soon as Mary was sure the mother was all taken care of left to go back to Rigby. They got back to Rigby at 3 o'clock pm, 24 hours later. Mary had to stay at a friends in Rigby that night as she couldn't get back home. She said that it had been like driving in a pan of milk for 24 hours. Mary was thrilled to have been able to save this young mothers and there are many more stories like this of Mary's love and concern for people and her willingness to serve others.

Mary wrote " The doors of our home have always been open to those needing assistance and help since our marriage. Four of them were left orphans spent years with us. Three boys who were having trouble in the cities came to the farm to live, each from a different locality. One of

them had polio while at our home and we cared for him till he recovered. We were asked by the court to take care of a family of six until they could be placed in homes, they were with us for almost 3 months. One mother and new baby's husband deserted them and we took care of them

until she was able to be on her own. We took in a Danish family who had just came from Denmark, a mother and two little boys, they later moved to Salem. We had a grandson on a mission who wrote and asked us to sponsor a mother, father and little boy, we said yes and soon they were on their own, we lent them just enough to get established in a home of their own in just 3 months. We were asked to take in two retarded boys from the county area so they could go to school, they lived with us during the week and went home on the weekends, they did this for 2 years and they worked for us when we needed them in the summer. Another time a knock came on the door, it was a mother and father with a nice looking son. They said they had been told by friends that we let children stay with us so they had brought their son from Arizona as he had got in trouble with the law there and they told them they would let him go if they would take him out of the state. Again we could not say no. He stayed with us for two years went home and got in trouble again. We felt very badly for him. I guess some you can't help. We have also taken in three girls without husbands and kept them until their baby's were born and they could care for themselves and baby. We let a family of three Indian children stay with us a while. Their mother had to have surgery for cancer and needed a place for them to stay for two weeks but it turned

into three months. We loved them but had trouble with teaching them not to steal. The doctor called me form the hospital rest home and asked me to find a place for an old deaf lady whom I had sent to him to treat for cancer. Her money had run out and she wanted him to see if she could stay with me and of course we took her in and cared for her so she could have her little dog she loved so much. She later fell and broke her back and we took her in after she left the hospital until she could walk and then moved her into a trailer in Monteview where good neighbors could help

here."

Mary also loved the Lord and because of this love she was very active in the L.D.S. Church. she served in many different positions in the church. She was Relief Society President from Aug. 1943 to Oct 1947. She served during the war years and one year they were asked to furnish 49 quilts to be sent to the church welfare program. She was also busy in the Sunday School program and taught every age group class in it. When she was stricken with cancer in 1959 and 1960 the ward held a special fast for her and she stated that because of this fast and the priesthood blessing she received, she was fully healed of cancer after her surgery.

Mary was put in charge of the Relief Society history and loved doing this. She also loved doing her genealogy and was always working on it whenever she could.

Mary had loved us all as her own and had done more than most mothers do for their own families. Many of the Gunderson family, her relatives, neighbors and friends have been assisted financially by Mary for their education, missions, homes, farms and business ect. She always loved to give help and felt guilty spending her money on anything for herself. There was always a hot meal, a loaf of home made bread, a box of her canned fruit or a package of meat to who ever stopped in. Very seldom a night went by that after a hard day of nursing she wasn't home

preparing a hot meal for ten or more people. You never heard her complain for she truly loved to serve others. Ed had known her sweet compassionate soul and we all could never repay him for bringing this special woman into our lives. She loved people.

Did she learn to love her husband? Yes, very much and she took care of him many times from illnesses that would of taken his life if it had not been for her love and nursing. On Oct.29, 1977 he died at the age 89, at his home with his loving wife at his side.

Mary had found in 1960 that she also had diabetes and after her cancer surgery, Ed's sister Lynn Marchant came and stayed with them and Mary said she didn't know what she would have done without her help. She was a widow and had stayed with them before and Mary had nursed her back to health before and Mary considered her like a second mother. In 1969 Mary started having trouble with her heart, they changed her insulin and then until 1972 she continued to work, She then retired from County nursing after 27 years. After her retirement people still

called her and for the rest of her years she worked as a nurse on her own time. She and Ed got away once in a while to travel which they both enjoyed so much until his health failed. In Aug 1979 Mary fell and broke her shoulder and some ribs and from then on her health continued to deteriorate. In the fall of 1980 she suffered a heart attack and from then on she was dependent on others for her care and how she hated to be burden to anyone. We would try to make her realize that for so many years she had taken care of us and now it was our turn to care for her. During this time she stayed in the homes of Leona and Jim Purcell, Sharon and Jerry Clark, and Aden and Afton Gunderson. The doctor wouldn't allow her to have visitors or lift her arms to use the telephone and boy she hated that. We would catch her once in awhile on the phone by her bed. She had to know how all her good widow friends were doing and she missed them so much. It was hard for her because she had never been one to do nothing. she loved being in the middle of things. Mary enjoyed being in the home of her loved ones but she still longer for her own home but her health just wouldn't permit it and on the morning of April 22, 1981 she passed away in Aden's home.

She has a posterity of 39 grandchildren, 108 great grandchildren and 6 great-great- grandchildren who know her as their beloved grandma or nurse grandma. As her grandson Garth, stated, at her funeral she exemplified the scripture in Matt, 25: 34 - 40, " Then shall the King say

into them on her his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world: For I was in hungered, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in: Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick,

and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came into me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee in hungered, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw thee sick. or in prison, and came into thee? And the King shall answer and say unto thee. Verily I say into you. In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these me brethren, ye have done it unto me!

"We love Grandma Mary", Your loving granddaughter, Sharon Gunderson Clark. And on by, another granddaughter, Maurine J. Purcell Purser

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